Movie Review A Street Cat Named Bob

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2016 - Spoiler alerts A truly beautiful movie recreating real events. A story that seems quite sad until the amazing change of fortunes brought about by a stray cat. James Bowen was a recovering heroin addict on the streets of London, living on scraps from bins and what little money he earned from his busking. He was on a Methodone recovery programme and eventually offered sheltered accomodation in the East End Of London on condition that he stayed off Heroin. On the brink of lapsing, he found a wounded stray cat had crept into his accomodation. Bowen used the last of hos money to pay for medication for the cat, who a friend named Bob. Afterwards, Bowen couldn't get the cat to leave his side. It followed him even to his buskings, to the point of stowing away on buses. With Bob on his shoulder, Bowen was attracting bigger crowds when doing his singing, without really knowing why. The reason - tourist videos of Bob had gone viral on Youtube and Instagram. People were travelling to London just to see the cat and man in action. The attention led a book publisher to invite Bowen to write a memoir and it became an instant major best-seller. It deals not only with the relationship with an amazing cat (who plays himself in much of the film with seven stunt cats helping out), but also Bowen's recovery of contact with his estranged father, and romance with one of his neighbours. Luke Treadaway plays Bowen (who briefly appears as himself too) and sings songs written specially for the film (Bowen mostly sings cover versions). Anthony Head (Giles in Buffy The Vampire Slayer) plays his father. It is a deeply wonderful film based on an equally lovely book. Youtube James Bowen helping the homeless with assistance from Bob earlier this year Arthur Chappell